Mangaluru: For the last two months, students of St Aloysius College have been working on cleaning illegal dumping spots in the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) limits and creating awareness among people regarding unscientific disposal of solid waste.
Students along with their teaching staff have been visiting the identified spots and cleaning it through Shramadan. This activity commenced in the month of December 2018 and is still going on.
Various illegal dumping spots in areas such as Bengre, Thotta Bengre, Hampankatta Old Bus stand, Central Market, Tannir Bhavi and Baikampadi were cleaned through this effort.
Students carried out a door to door campaign, speaking to the residents in these areas about the need for scientific disposal of solid waste –the city’s waste management system requires that domestic and commercial waste generators hand over the generated waste directly to the waste collectors. But in some areas, instead of giving to Waste collectors, people dump the waste in spots that have proximity or are open, which then becomes the norm disrupting the system itself.
This open dumping of waste had become a public health challenge. It is here that the students of St. Aloysius College felt they could make a difference. They took up initiatives to end this practice.
The entire initiative was planned by Mr Madhu Manohar, Environmental Engineer, Health section, MCC and Mr Sharon CN coordinator Centre for Social Concern, St Aloysius college.
The Centre for Social Concern is an active extension department of St Aloysius college which works with people on various issues at the grass root level. Mr Arun Kumar AHI (Assistant Health Inspector) was very active in coordinating this exposure. Many from the teaching fraternity from different undergraduate streams also joined with students in this initiative.
